Now, Missouri
Donald kicked the door open then moved aside to let Lincoln charge out.
The enemy had their backs to them focused on the melee down on the street.
Donald shot one in the back.
Britt and Sunny killed another two with spells. A light arrow for the former and a thin stream of acid from the latter.
Michael was slower because he had to take care to avoid cutting his bowstring with his sharp nails, nonetheless he felled a fourth.
Half of the enemy downed in seconds.
Lincoln was on them next.
He bull-rushed into one with his shield and knocked the man off the roof. His axe hacked deep into the chest of another. The woman’s chainmail barely slowed the large blade.
Lincoln’s display revealed to Michael that the big man had a passive Skill that enhanced strength. It made sense.
Two enemies left.
Michael shoot one in the throat.
While the last shattered Lincoln’s shield with a thunderous blow of his sledgehammer.
Lincoln struck with a downward hack, but the man caught the haft.
He raised his sledgehammer with a snarl, but choked as the unnoticed Charlie darted in and stabbed her short blade into the man’s armpit.
“Quickly! Drag the bodies inside!” Britt said.
Michael saw that their fight, short as it was, hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Enemies on the other rooftops, both across the street and on their side, shifted their attention to them.
They hurried to follow Britt’s command as the whiz-crack of bullets, arrows and bolts began to buzz all around them.
Lincoln grunted with pain as they reached the door.
“Fuck! He’s hit!” Donald caught the big man and staggered under the weight, but managed to get inside even as a giant rock shattered against the doorway.
They staggered down to the lower landing and listened to the storm of fire dwindle to nothing.
They stood for a moment. Simply breathing hard from the exhilaration of a successful fight, barring Lincoln’s gunshot wound.
Michael stared at the dead bodies thrown haphazardly on the floor.
“I’m fine,” Lincoln growled as he shrugged off Donald’s help.
“You’re welcome,” Donald muttered.
“I mean, thanks, but I’m really fine. Doesn’t even hurt that much and without my shield it don’t matter that I can’t use my left arm.”
“Come here. I need to get the bullet and all the crap out,” Britt took a first aid kit out of the pack at the small of her back.
“Why bother? He just needs to eat and it’ll heal,” Michael said.
Sunny was already shoving mouthfuls of raw flesh into her mouth. The small woman hadn’t bothered with a knife, she just gouged out chunks with her sharp nails.
Charlie reached toward the pile of bodies, but Sunny snarled and snapped at the outstretched hand.
“Damn it, Sunny! There’s plenty for everyone!” Britt snapped.
Sunny eyed her balefully, but relented and dragged her body out into the hallway.
Donald and Charlie eagerly claimed theirs, while Michael barely hesitated.
The smell was alluring.
He forced himself to eat properly. To savor the blessed sacrament.
There was something in the way Sunny was cramming flesh into her mouth, stuffing so much that her cheeks bulged like a chipmunk’s, that didn’t sit well with him.
But the concern faded away with the sweet taste in his mouth.
Everything faded away.
He was only dimly aware of Britt finally digging out the bullet and bits of chainmail and padded cloth out of Lincoln’s shoulder before the two also claimed their own bodies for the feast.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before Britt’s clapping hands broke him from the reverie of the feast.
Blood was smeared around Britt’s mouth as she licked her hands clean. “Wow! I’m feeling much stronger! I’d love to keep eating, but we have to keep the Quest in mind. There are still several rooftops that need clearing after all,” she said.
Michael felt the stickiness coating his hands, so he licked them clean too. “They’ll be ready for us now. Probably set up an ambush inside the building.”
“Which is why we’ll do something unexpected,” Britt regarded Lincoln. “How you feeling, big guy?”
Lincoln grinned a too-wide grin, blood dripping down his chin, flesh stuck between his sharp teeth. He swung his arm around. The wound was closed, all that remained as evidence of the gunshot was a hole in his armor and a red welt on his chalky white skin. “Strong,” he growled.
“Awesome! Here’s my plan. Feel free to add suggestions at the end,” Britt said.
She laid it out quickly and no one had anything to add or, in Sunny’s case, didn’t care.
Once again, Lincoln led the way out of the rooftop door.
This time, instead of a shield, he held two of the most intact corpses in front of him.
They took the brunt of the incoming fire as Lincoln leapt across the twelve foot gap to the other building with ease.
Michael had been right.
There was less of the enemy on the roof.
“Remember, don’t stop! We clear the rooftops first!” Britt roared as she leapt and fired a light arrow.
Each of them, newly empowered by fresh meat, cleared the jump with ease.
Michael loosed a mundane arrow that sank into a woman’s shield.
Sunny leapt on her, but couldn’t bring the big woman down.
A fighter likely had the enhanced strength passive Skill and despite her boost, Sunny was still a small young woman.
She snarled and slashed as she tried to pull the woman’s shield down.
The woman stabbed her blade through chainmail into Sunny’s gut before shrugging her off.
“Get everyone up here!” the woman roared.
Another man rushed to the doorway, but was clobbered from behind by a corpse.
Lincoln had hurled it like the sack of meat and bone that it was.
Michael loosed another arrow, but the woman blocked it again.
“Chain Lightning!” a young man thrust his hands out.
“Mage Shield!” Britt screeched.
She would have blocked the arc of bright blue electricity, but it had already split.
Michael’s body seized up.
The smell of burnt flesh filled his nostrils.
“The big one isn’t falling!” the young man cried.
“Go! Get inside and get the others! I’ll hold them off,” the big woman banged her blade and shield together. “Fight Me! You monsters!”
Even with the painful spasms wracking his body, Michael had one thought.
Kill her.
He fumbled the arrow several times before he managed to nock it to the string.
Lincoln was the closest, so he was on her first.
“Shield Bash!”
The woman charged inside the arc of his wild slash and slammed the metal boss into his chest.
“Bleeder Cut!”
She slashed her blade across his inner thigh.
Lincoln roared and threw himself at the woman ignoring the fountain of blood spurting out of his thigh.
She deftly backpedaled while meeting his wild strikes with her shield and slicing his unarmored parts.
Charlie and Britt reached them at that point. Both snarled like feral animals. The latter had forgotten her magic.
“Cleave!”
The woman swung her blade in a low, wide arc in front of her.
All three didn’t have armor on their lower legs apart from tough work pants.
The woman cut them to the bone and sent them falling to their knees with their necks exposed.
She drew her blade back.
Donald fired.
The bullets tore through the woman’s shield and knocked her back several steps.
Michael saw dents in her chest plate, but the lack of blood meant no penetration.
He loosed his arrow.
Skill or luck, the woman turned her head enough to take it on the side of her steel helmet rather than in the eye.
A momentary distraction.
Lincoln lunged forward and grappled the woman’s legs.
Donald fired again turning the woman’s face into a bloody ruin.
All of this had happened in such a short span of time that the young mage was still at the door, having been slowed by the mistake of helping the other man.
“Light Arrow!” Britt regained her senses and sent the spell piercing through the back of the young mage’s exposed neck.
He toppled along with the half-broken man he had been trying to save.
Michael regarded the rooftops across the street.
Battle had broken out there as well.
His other brothers and sisters were doing their part, so he raised his bow and nocked another arrow despite the pain radiating throughout his entire body.
Arms trembling, he was forced to rely on a Skill. “Steady Aim,” he whispered.
He loosed.
The arrow streaked across the gap and silenced a mage on the verge of casting something large from the feeling in the air.
“Donald! Make them keep their heads down!” Britt pointed to the next rooftop where a handful of enemy fighters were aiming.
Donald rushed to the doorway for cover even as he sent controlled bursts across.
Britt ripped a chunk out of the fallen fighter’s arm and hurried to Sunny’s side before cramming the meat into the small woman’s distended mouth. “Need to eat to heal.”
Sunny didn’t need to be told twice. Her mouth worked reflexively even as Britt hurriedly dug fingers into the stab wound in her stomach. “This is a mess. Going to be a pain to get all the metal and cloth out.”
“Don’t care, do what you can. Worry about rest later,” Sunny growled around a mouthful.
Michael scrambled to the half-broken man while the rest, aside from Donald, ate and healed in the cover of a large air conditioning unit. “What about this one? I think Lincoln broke his back with that throw.”
“He’s not much of a threat right now. Tie him up. He’ll choose his fate later,” Britt said.
“Lucky you.” Michael zip-tied the man’s wrists together.
“I’m never going to join you monsters!” the man spat.
Michael ignored him.
Instead, he gouged a chunk out of the dead young mage’s cheek and ate it.
The man sobbed and looked away.
He didn’t understand the truth of the sacrament.
The strength it gave one to fight back against the true monsters in the world.
The ache in Michael’s muscles faded away.
Just in time as Britt called them to attention. “Alright, same plan, Lincoln…”
“Got it,” Lincoln picked up the big armored woman and held her body in front of him as he charged and leapt across to the next rooftop.
“What about the ones downstairs?”
“If they haven’t come up yet then I’m betting they’re waiting for us. I don’t want to engage on their terms,” Britt said.
They followed Lincoln across the gap.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Michael went last loosing arrows alongside Donald’s bullets to keep their enemy’s from getting uncontested shots on the other four.
The fights on the remaining two rooftops went much easier.
They took a moment to eat and rest on the last rooftop while watching the veterans fighting to break through the defense around city hall.
“Most of the people are crammed in there,” Britt said.
“Can’t be that much left. I thought there was only supposed to be a couple of thousand total people in this settlement?” Donald reloaded a fresh magazine.
“There’s an easy thousand out here fighting.” Michael had a quick eye when it came to estimating crowd sizes.
“Then it’s all the non-fighters in there. Old people and kids,” Charlie said.
“Not worth… too weak…” Sunny was barely understandable with how grotesque her tooth-filled maw was compared to the others.
“New brothers and sisters?” Lincoln added.
Michael eyed Britt. “What’s the plan?”
“For clearing the buildings? They’ll expect us to come down the stairs, so why don’t we go in through the back door. Easy enough to just jump down now that we’re so much stronger and tougher,” Britt replied.
“Faster too,” Lincoln stared at his chalky white hands and arms. “I don’t even feel like the same person.”
“Like you can rip them apart with your bare hands,” Charlie nodded.
“I need to eat more,” Donald gingerly poked his fat belly jingling his chainmail shirt in the process.
“Counterintuitive?”
“I guess so, Mike, but they said that our bodies would eventually reach way beyond human potential,” Donald shrugged.
“Eat more… eat more… eat more…” Sunny giggled.
Britt fixed her with a baleful glare. “Remember your magic. It’ll be easier for you if you soften them up first before turning into an animal.”
“You’re not an animal,” Charlie scowled. “We are not to lose our rational selves to the hunger. Remember the words.”
Sunny pouted, but nodded after a moment.
She remembered, but whether she could control herself was the question.
“Gear check,” Britt barked.
“I— I lost my axe somewhere back there,” Lincoln’s sheepish grin was ghastly with a too-wide mouth filled with sharp teeth.
“Last mag on my carbine, still got my Glock with four mags, then its machete time…” Donald considered the sharp nails poking out of his gloves, “and claws…” he amended.
“Don’t forget the teeth,” Charlie said as she waved her bloody short sword, “oh… and I also have a pistol, totally forgot.”
“Sunny, I know you’ve got a lot of mana left,” Britt sighed, “so, please use some magic. As for me, I’m good for awhile, unless the next engagement is a rough one. However, I’ll try to conserve my mana. I’m stronger and faster, so I really should lean on that. It’s hard because I’m not used to fighting hand to hand.”
Michael eyed the quiver at his belt. “Down to almost half.”
“Stay back and pick your shots. Focus on taking out mages and other shooters. Don’t worry about us too much,” Britt pointed at the hole in Sunny’s chainmail and padded shirt. “We can survive a lot if we partake of the sacrament fast enough.”
“Can’t wait to be like them,” Donald gestured down to the battle around city hall.
One of the veterans, a hulking monster, tossed grown men and women like toy dolls while several spears stuck out of his body.
“Eat more,” Britt said. “Lincoln…” she gestured.
“Got it.”
Lincoln leapt off the roof.
The rest followed the big man into the first floor business. Some kind of clothing store.
They were instantly met by the enemy.
Michael didn’t have much to do besides shoot arrows into his priority targets.
The others did most of the fighting and killing as they went from business to business, apartment to apartment.
The enemy fought fiercely, but the tight spaces worked against them.
With all the flesh they had taken, Michael’s team was a lot stronger and faster than they had been less than an hour ago.
A strong young man sunk an axe deep into the side of Lincoln’s thigh.
The wound healed with the chunk Lincoln bit out of the young man’s throat.
In an apartment one building over and two floors up, Charlie cried out as gashes suddenly appeared on several of her exposed areas.
Her fingers speared out and caught a young woman in the arm.
The woman slashed a curved blade, but Charlie pulled her closer to take a chunk out of her cheek.
The woman screamed. She stabbed and slashed in a blind panic.
Charlie simply slashed her throat open.
Several bites later, the wounds on Charlie’s body began to slowly close.
A fireball exploded in the confined hallway.
Jagged splinters pelted the entire team.
Michael found that he could ignore the pain as he shot the mage in the throat.
Sunny, her face blackened and charred from being the closest to the blast, charged the rest of the enemy.
Britt sighed as she pulled huge splinters out of her body, but Sunny surprised them all.
“Acid Jet!” Sunny snarled as she thrust a hand out.
The thin stream cut into the chest plate of the warrior in the front.
The man screamed as the substance began to burn into his body.
Sunny lashed out and cut the man’s eyes in passing as she leapt on the others hiding behind him.
“See! Much better!” Britt clapped.
Michael pulled the last bits of wooden splinters out just in time to shoot the woman about to plunge her spear into the oblivious Sunny’s back.
Lincoln, Charlie, Donald, and Britt joined Sunny to finish the rest of their enemy off.
A short while later, they had mostly healed their wounds after eating their fill.
“I’ve eaten literal pounds, but I’m not full,” Donald said.
“Must be cause of all the healing. Like, we’re using it up faster than we can fill our tummies,” Lincoln said.
“One last building,” Charlie said.
Britt put her ear to the wall and held up a hand for silence. She backed away after a moment and whispered something in Lincoln’s ear.
“I think so,” he nodded.
Michael regarded the big man.
Lincoln was noticeably bigger. His muscles bulged as he flexed himself up to a rage. Which he let loose with an explosion of power as he sprinted at the wall.
“On him! Strike fast and hard!” Britt roared.
Lincoln plowed straight through the wall like it was paper.
Michael was last through the huge breach.
The scene in the next space was chaotic.
It was some kind of studio or gym. For yoga, dancing or something along those lines.
There was a lot of people huddled against the far wall with a half dozen hard-eyed men and women standing protectively in front of them.
“Seems like they couldn’t fit everyone in city hall,” Charlie said.
True enough.
Michael noted that most of the huddled group were kids with a smattering of elderly people.
“You’ll not harm them, monsters. You die here,” a tall, broad-shouldered man with an impressive beard pulled the visor of his helmet down over his eyes. His curved sword wove a mesmerizing pattern with the shorter curved blade in his other hand.
“Careful,” Britt hissed. “These ones are different.”
“So she says,” a narrow-eyed woman smirked.
An older woman poked her head out from behind a man wielding a tower shield. She looked more like a librarian or a school teacher despite her gear. “You’re young. It might not be too late. You can still turn away from the evil path. Just put down your weapons and allows us to chain you and we’ll be able to join the fight outside to put an end to this senseless violence.”
The old woman’s voice held steel.
Michael was wary.
Instincts rang the alarm in his head.
“Why not fight out there from the beginning? Why waste your time protecting these people?” Britt frowned.
The sword-wielding man snorted. “Listen to her. They’re too far gone. Kid, we were hired to protect people first. Except the rich fuckers thought we’d leave kids out here while we protected their cowardly asses up in city hall. Fuck that noise. We’ll gut you lot, then take care of the rest of your cannibal buddies.”
“Too much, bro,” a slim gun-toting young man said.
Michael didn’t recognize the young man’s gun. He had it aimed like a rifle, but the magazine was a round drum.
“Let’s do this, boss,” the sword-wielding man said flatly.
“They’re children. We have to give them a chance,” the older woman said.
“More kids behind us and those don’t have bloody mouths filled with shark teeth,” the narrow-eyed woman said.
Michael nocked an arrow, but didn’t draw his bow. He waited on Britt to give an order.
She glanced back toward the hole in the wall then seemed to come to a decision.
“They’re going to attack,” the sword-wielding man said calmly.
“Close your eyes, cover your ears and open your mouths, children,” the old woman held up a hand.
Michael realized that the instructions weren’t for them, but for the ones huddled against the wall.
A bright light and a loud bang filled the room.
The old woman had cast a spell with saying the words.
That meant a higher level.
That meant this team was definitely too strong for them.
He could see nothing through the blinding whiteness in his eyes as he tried to blink it away.
The sounds in his ears were muffled, but he thought he heard gunfire and the sound of roars, angry and filled with pain.
“Light Barrage!”
Britt’s voice was a harsh snarl.
“Acid Spray!”
Sunny’s guttural voice growled at the same time.
“Greater Mana Shield.”
He recognized the older woman’s calm voice. As if she was doing story time for the kids.
Loud barks filled the air, one after another in quick succession.
He realized that it sounded like shotgun blasts, but in semi auto.
Blades sliced into flesh at high speed, blood splattered across his lips. The taste was different. Not human, not entirely. One of his own. Lincoln’s or Charlie’s since they were closest to the sword-wielding man.
He drew and aimed where he had heard the old woman’s voice.
“None of that,” the narrow-eyed woman’s voice sounded close. Too close.
His bowstring snapped— no, it was cut— before he could lose.
He spun and swung the bow and stabbed with the arrow.
“Tsk, tsk. Bleed… for me.”
Stinging pain and hot liquid suddenly ran down the back of his leg.
The woman had cut through his tough work pants like they were made of silk.
He fell to one knee.
His forehead jerked back roughly. A knee jammed in the middle of his spine.
His vision cleared to see the mirthless smile on the narrow-eyed woman’s face.
“Sorry, kid, but better dead than a cannibal monster,” the woman drew her large knife across his throat.
Hot blood, life blood gushed down Michael's chest.
He sputtered and choked as the woman released him.
He desperately and futilely clamped his hands around the deep gash.
But the woman had used a Skill and no amount of pressure would stop the bleeding.
He was going to die.
The flow of time slowed.
He watched the rest of his newly-formed team join him.
The older woman set Sunny and Britt on fire with the snap of her fingers.
Lincoln was bleeding from dozens of cuts as he tried and failed to grapple the sword-wielding man.
Charlie leapt at the young man with the weird gun, but was sent hurtling toward the wall with blasts that came as fast as the man squeezed the trigger.
Donald fired his carbine, but for some reason was shooting directly into the tower shield despite the presence of so many other open targets. The fat young man didn’t see the narrow-eyed woman darting at his back, blade in hand.
Michael thought with some sadness that they could have been great together given time and practice.
A bunch of noobs thrown together by chance and they had killed dozens of hardened fighters.
They had simply run into opponents that were too high level for them.
Their moment of doom had come.
Heralded by the wall to their right exploding in a spray of wood and brick.
Not doom.
Time resumed its natural course.
Three figures sped into the room.
One was a massive behemoth of bulging muscle, while the other two looked thin by comparison.
Michael blinked as one of the leaner ones moved to intercept the narrow-eyed woman.
He slashed clawed hands faster than Michael could follow.
The woman parried and cut nearly as quickly.
Almost as fast wasn’t enough.
The woman spun away trailing blood from a nasty gash through the side of her padded armor. “Van—”
“Nope,” a guttural growl accompanied a chalky white arm striking like a serpent and stifled the word in the woman’s throat.
Michael recognized Fred more from his section leader’s pants than the voice or the physical appearance.
Fred dripped in blood. His distended mouth opened wide and bit a chunk out of the woman’s face, slowly healing the dozens of cuts on his body.
Michael was shocked to see the other two senior flesh eaters had already moved the rest of his team closer to the hole in the wall and place themselves protectively in front.
“Thought I smelled some powerful prey,” Fred grunted as he regarded the older woman, “you most of all.”
“Let her go and we won’t destroy you,” the older woman’s voice was steel.
“You’re mercenaries? I have a better offer. This battle is over. We’ve breached the city hall defenses and taken your leaders. All that’s left is mop up time to deal with the unwilling, which we’re leaving to the newbies. So, join us and become stronger.”
“That’d diminish us beyond imagining.”
“You must be very unimaginative,” Fred regarded Michael and the others. “Saw your handiwork on the roofs and smelled them in the other buildings. Well done, but you’re out of your league.”
“They’re dying,” the sword-wielding man smirked.
“Not for long.”
Fred acted in the blink of an eye.
He tore the narrow-eyed woman to pieces and threw an arm, a leg, a head to Michael and each of his fellow brothers and sisters.
“Eat. Heal. Get out there and leave this to us.”
Michael ate desperately as he pressed himself against the wall and watched the carnage ensue.
The older woman pointed and blew out a large hole in the wall behind the huddled children.
“Retreat! I’ll join you after I take care of them,” the sword-wielding man said.
“I’m sorry, but we need you,” the older woman said.
Michael tracked her eyes and saw that she spoke to someone in the huddled crowd.
A slight, young man stood and began to transform.
In seconds he went from frail weakling to a furry ball of muscle, teeth and claws.
“It’s a holding action! Fight only to delay then escape. You know the rendezvous point,” the older woman called after the werewolf.
Not werewolf, Michael amended. Weredog?
The brown-furred beast man leapt past the sword-wielder and collided with the other lean flesh eater. The two tore into each other savagely with teeth and claws, faster than Michael’s eyes could follow.
“Follow after me,” the older woman urged the huddled mass of mostly children, “trust me. I’ll catch you with magic. Then we can escape in our van.” She jumped through the hole.
Three stories up.
Michael wasn’t familiar with any spells that could help kids take that kind of drop, nevertheless when presented with the option of taking a leap of faith or staying in an enclosed space with them the people jumped.
“Dismember!” the sword-wielding man snarled as he sidestepped the behemoth’s rush. His curved sword flashed in the sunlight shining from outside the destroyed wall.
The behemoth’s arm crashed to the ground with a wet thud.
The sword-wielder pivoted and slashed low with the shorter curved blade in his other hand. “Hamstring!” The Skill allowed him to cut through supernaturally tough skin and muscle, all the way to the bone.
The young man with the weird shotgun opened up on the behemoth, peppering his hugely muscled back. Bright red pinpricks quickly dotted the chalky white expanse like splatter art on a blank canvas.
The sword-wielding man swept in smoothly as if he was performing a dance. “Decap—”
The behemoth moved with stunning quickness as she swung an arm the size of tree clipping the sword-wielder and sending him crashing through the far wall just behind the last of the people they were protecting.
Fred sprang toward the shotgun-wielder, who clicked on empty. “Shi— Automatic Reload!”
“Taunt!” the man with the tower shield stepped forward. “Target Shield!”
Fred growled, but had no choice but to slash away at the immense shield even as the young man filled him with iron pellets.
A loud roar filled the air.
Michael saw the weredog, badly cut with chunks of fur and flesh missing hold up the other flesh eater’s severed head.
The shield-wielder, buckling under Fred’s assault, hissed desperately at the weredog. “Hel—”
The words were buried underneath the behemoth’s remaining hand as it engulfed the man’s head like a tennis ball.
A quick squeeze and it was over.
The Skill was broken and Fred was free to turn his attention to the shotgun-wielder and the weredog.
The former ran, firing all the way as he dived out of the hole in the wall yelling for a catch. The suppression fire was enough to keep Fred and the behemoth from catching up.
As for the latter, the furry beast man had jumped out of the other destroyed wall.
“Two for one,” Fred growled. “We’ll do better next time. Tiffany,” he nudged the behemoth with a foot, “you can eat that one, since you killed it and you need to reattach your arm,” he pointed at the shield-wielder’s corpse at her feet. He turned his gaze to Michael and the rest. “What’re you sitting around for? Get out there! You don’t want miss out!” he gave them a ghastly, bloody smile.